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February '09 Newsletter (3)
publication date: Feb 20, 2009
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author/source: Jason Westr
February '09 Newsletter (3) Hello to everyone Out There I hope your February is progressing without undue aggravation. This is, briefly, what I have for you today: Audio interview: This is your language class, do not say anything Ye Olde Visa Shoppe Something for the weekend, sir? The old jokes home At the end of last year I met a guy called Nick Chaplin in a café at Waterloo station and interviewed him about his Thai language learning experiences on a very unusual course in Bangkok, the ALG programme. I met Nick as a direct result of my online friendship with Professor Stephen Krashen. Stephen had been to Bangkok to look at the course because it seemed to back up some of his theories about the nature of language acquisition and more specifically the importance of comprehensible input. Listen to the first part of the interview here: www.languagesoutthere.com/articles/This-is-your-language-class-do-not-say-anything The rest will be published in the next few newsletters, it gets better, honest :-) The way student visas for long-term English language courses in the UK are processed is about to change completely. Visa issuance will be more closely linked to the educational organisation applied to than ever before. In large part this is an effort to clamp down on the so called 'visa shops' that have operated for years in the UK, most obviously in London. This article from my blog asks a few questions that might not be what the legislators had in mind when they had the opportunity to do something about the dodgy schools and other problems that are inextricably linked to the 'system'. www.languagesoutthere.com/articles/Ye-Olde-Visa-Shoppe This is a little bit of 'thinking out loud' by us...something for the weekend, sir? http://www.meetup.com/English-Out-There-London-3-hour-taught-lessons/ The old jokes home I just bought my epileptic brother a strobe light for his birthday. He's going to have a fit when he sees it.. Until next time... Cheers Jason |
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